


Boston, the Twin

by mythtakenforastory



Series: Boston the City [2]
Category: Cities!verse (Fandom), Paris Burning (thecitysmith)
Genre: Boston and Salem are sisters, Gen, Paris Burning, Salem had a mental breakdown and no one's ever let her forget it, twin Cities are a Thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:51:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythtakenforastory/pseuds/mythtakenforastory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are a double handful of Twin Cities in the United States. The oldest twins aren't remembered as twins, though, because the oldest US twin Cities are Boston and Salem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boston, the Twin

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [Tumblr](http://mythtakenforastory.tumblr.com/post/47999399350/boston-the-twin) on 4/14/13. 
> 
> Check out [thecitysmith](thecitysmith.tumblr.com) or the "paris burning" tag on Tumblr for more awesomeness in the 'verse.

There are a double handful of Twin Cities in the United States. Most well-known by that moniker are, of course, the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul, tall and vaguely nordic-looking and identical. Then there are the Cities that grew large and grew together so they share an airport and a call-sign. But the oldest twin Cities in the US aren’t remembered as twins. Because the oldest twin Cities are Salem and Boston.

 

They’re not identical; put them beside each other and the most you can say is that they’re sisters, dark hair and pale skin and dimples. (Third and fourth oldest Cities in the US, coming only behind Jamestown and New York City.) 

Salem is the older twin, and the quieter. It took her a while to really gain back her self-confidence after her brief hysterical episode in 1692, when fully 20 of her people died outright, and a handful more in prison. (Her shoulders sometimes ache in foul weather, internal damage from having so many of her people in prison. No scars, for there was no damage to her streets, but the dull pain reminds her just the same.) As she was further settled and expanded, her ports and ships went first to war, and then to trade, sailing off for distant shores and returning with fascinating curios and fewer of her boys than they started with. Salem’s curiosity returns with her captains, and she sends her men and ships ever further out, to bring back strange new things for her to see. 

Boston, in contrast, is the younger twin and the louder. Enamored of knowledge, she has as much curiosity as her sister, only turned toward books and the American people, instead of cultures abroad. She’s also embroiled in politics and social change, getting her passionate blood up about any issue she feels is worthy of having a  _cause._  (The arguments she used to have on the State House steps with politicians made for fertile gossip fodder; unlike New York City, she wasn’t willing to stay out if she could possibly bully her way in. “ _look_ ,” she said once, “ _i am your City. everything you do in there both reflects me and **affects**  me. if you think i am willing to be abandoned outside to discover  **later**  what you have decided i shall be, you have another think coming._”) 

Letters between the two were frequent, even from a very young age, when the two Cities were new and Salem could still pull rank by virtue of being  _two whole years_  older than Boston. They were the strongest support each of them had. 

London wrote occasionally, after both Cities were already fifty years old. Salem accepted her, more or less, as Boston looked askance. London had been busy elsewhere while they had grown, after all. Why was she claiming relation now? (She would only call the City “Mother” once, ninety years after that, in a hurt and angry letter saying  _your people have spilled my people’s blood; there is no coming back from that and i am no longer a child, for there is war in my streets and this is revolution._ ) 

And the Cities grew. Salem fades from the spotlight, retreats into her ships and sailors and growing curio museum, until she learns to view her breakdown under the lens of the writers and storytellers who have placed so many fantastical stories in her streets. 

And Boston enjoys the attention, welcoming immigrants and abolitionists and students; suffering the fires that so plagued early city planning with vitriolic swearing and a new book. And she gains her sports teams, newfangled entertainment for her to brag and boast over. (“ _Salem, do you_ have _to mention the Curse?_ ”) 

And they still write; daily gossip and gripes, the people they’ve sent to each other on recommendation of interesting places to go. Interesting new exhibits in each of their museums, because museums are a mutual geek-out point for them both. 

Because at the end of the day, even if they bicker, even if none of their people remember it, Salem and Boston are twins. They will always have each other.

((“ _I am the older twin, after all._ ”)

(“ _Oh, shut up, Salem_.”))


End file.
